Last Week

The Budget/Conference Committee

The Conference Committee continues to meet in workgroups on budget Articles each day. For Art. III (education) the lead Conferees are Chairman Pitts for the House and Senator West for the Senate – however, at each of the workgroup meetings other members of both the Conference Committee and members of Finance and Appropriations have been in attendance. The full Conference Committee has been meeting at 8 am most days to announce the decisions as they are agreed upon. The Committee met on Friday morning to announce decisions on Art. III, but only related to Public Education issues.

The House

The House spent nearly a day and half last week working on the Sunset bill that would restructure the Department of Transportation. The House also passed HB 3276 by Rep. Howard (which is the bill that changes the allocation for Texas Grants) but changed the bill completely so that it now only calls for a study during the interim.

The House daily calendar has grown to over 200 bills as of this morning. This is significant because this Thursday is the last day for the House to hear House Bills. After this deadline the House will only consider Senate Bills and House bills that have come back from the Senate.

The Senate

The Senate continues to move at a fairly rapid pace - considering bills each day on the Senate floor. Unlike the House, the Senate does not have as prescriptive a set of rules related to deadlines to hear bills. We expect the pace in the Senate to accelerate as we move towards the end of the Session.

The Week Ahead

Conference Committee on the Budget

Was scheduled to meet this Monday morning at 8 am but the meeting was cancelled. TACC expects the Committee to meet each morning to announce its decisions. As with most years the Committee works from the easiest decisions to the most difficult and from mandatory spending decisions to the discretionary spending choices. This, of course, means that higher education is one of the last pieces to be decided.

House

The House has several significant issues to take up this week including HB 3646 by Hochberg, which is the School Finance bill. The House adopted a calendar rule for this bill that requires any amendments to be revenue neutral. This should have the effect of limiting the total number of amendments offered. One other bill of particular note among the 200 pending bills in the House is HB 1893 by Rep. Driver, which would allow concealed handgun permit holders to carry weapons on campuses.

Senate

The Senate Intent calendar is growing as well and we expect the Senate to continue to meet and hear bills each day. Given the Senate rules bills typically move significantly faster than on the House calendar. Senate Committees will continue to vote out both Senate and House bills over the next week.

House Higher Education Committee

Is scheduled to meet on Wednesday at 2:00 pm or upon adjournment. Click on this link for the Agenda:

 Higher Ed Agenda

Senate Finance Committee

Is scheduled to hear HB 2083 by Rep. Solomons this Monday at 12:00 pm or upon adjournment of the Senate. If the bill is voted out of Committee TACC expects it to be on the Senate Intent calendar within a week. We will send a notice as soon as that happens.

Senate Higher Education

Has not posted for a hearing as of this morning although we do expect that Chair will do so at some point in the week.